Olympus RPG Blog

Due to writer’s burnout on my part, I didn’t get around to doing the write-ups for this campaign run until a couple of months after the fact. As such, my OOC recollection isn’t as clear. I decided to assemble a general list of notes for the whole thing here instead of trying to remember little behind-the-scenes details for the individual sessions of the campaign. And so, here it is:

• This second run marks the transition from being based on Fallout to Fallout 3. There are some obvious differences in the details from the original—the GM intended this to be the case. One such issue we kept encountering was having to stretch out the actual distances between locations on the map—the computer game has a visible range much lower than real-life—most of the locations we went to during this Run were within a five-mile radius on the game map (especially bad considering the blast radius of a typical nuclear weapon). The population of Tenpenny Tower was increased to around 150 or so, to make more real-world sense. Also, the Tenpenny/Dashwood backstory was tweaked
• This campaign run features some of the longest periods of in-game downtime, a necessity due to the nature of the latter half; this was before the Casus Belli campaign
• Oddly enough, a lot of the characters got to shine a little more in this Run, especially once the Tenpenny Tower operation got under way. Lance did a lot of inventing/gadgeteering, and made more than a few messes. Bob (the serial-killer) got to do some murderizing (though he didn’t get to use his dumbwaiter shaft…yet). Sly did a lot of social manipulation; he was definitely in his element for this op. Colt finally got to do some snipering, though not at the super-long distances he’s capable of—it’s a start (better than the first Run, where he never even fired the rifle)
• The GM was certainly not prepared for the approach we ended up taking for dealing with Tenpenny. We’re actually not sure where to go from here now that it’s done—we had discussed just taking off and leaving someone we trust in charge, but it would be just as easy to re-base ourselves here
• Bob’s response to Dashwood’s declaration at the end was apparently a totally unplanned, spur-of-the-moment thing, but perfectly timed and executed—even random-rolled the artery hit
• It was determined as we were wrapping things up that Turk had examined the throats that were slashed and determined them to have been caused by the same blade, and likely the same killer, which in Dashwood’s case, he knew to have been Bob; Turk kept this info to himself, for now
• For Run 3, we’re expecting to pick up around nine months after the end of Run 2. It will also occur post the release of Fallout 4 which could mean more changes to the lore

The Rejects (AKA The Dirty Half-Dozen, The Six Wanderers)

Bob Perce (Herodian)
Colt Riffle (Gigermann)
Dr. J. Turk (CommJunkee)
Lance Bennett (Ronnke)
Lenny Leonardo (Melissa)
Romeo Sylvester (Rigil Kent)

The One Where They Took Over

1 Sep 2162

In the month prior, following the Rejects’ pact with Dashwood, Sly had gone on a Hearts-and-Minds campaign, swinging all but a handful of security personnel, and much of the citizenry of the Tower, to Dashwood’s favor, who was assumed to be Tenpenny’s successor should the worst occur. The plan thus far was to remove Tenpenny from office as quietly as possible, through weight of numbers against him. They had also discovered, through Lance’s listening-devices, that Tenpenny and his personal guard had been making plan, in the event of a coup attempt, to secure the armory, food storage, and water processing facilities in the Tower.

Now a month later, as the Rejects were coming in from their regular duties and bedding down for the evening, and explosion was heard (and/or felt) rocking the Tower from below; a bomb had been detonated in the basement, the location of Dashwood’s office. The Rejects scrambled, trying to make contact with Dashwood and the security team, and trying to organize the residents of the Tower into an orderly evacuation of the building. Dashwood finally responded, saying he had been injured, but was otherwise fine.

The Rejects individually made their way down to the security office to meet up with Dashwood and his crew. Lance was already in the basement at the maintenance bay, and decided to stay put to defend against attempts to seize the water processing unit; he prepared his Mr. Handy murder-bots for action. Some were caught in the elevator on the way down, as it was hijacked by an unknown party; unable to prevent it, they forced their way out and took the stairs instead. Colt went back to his room for his rifle and gear, and caught back up with Bob at the stairs on the way down. Lenny, already in the security area of the basement, reported “shots fired” at the armory, and later, the mess hall.

• Sly arrived first at the armory, solo, followed by Lenny, to join a few security guys locked in a firefight with some of Tenpenny’s personal guards and a couple of like-minded citizens. Tenpenny’s force was dropped before they could cut through the armory door
• A couple of Tenpenny’s guard tried to force their way into the water processing room where Lance had barricaded himself
• Colt and Bob diverted to the water processing room after the “all clear” was given at the armory, and sneaked up behind the guards trying to break in, intending to subdue them. As they sprang out of hiding, coincidentally, Lance opened the door, setting off a fire-hose trap he had constructed, intended for the guards—the lot of them were sent sprawling by the rush of water. One of the guards was (accidentally?) injured by Bob in the process, but were otherwise unharmed, and surrendered themselves; they were taken to the brig nearby. As Bob and Colt were leaving the brig area, Bob went back for a second and, when nobody could see, slit the guards’ throats to the bone, dead.

A bit afterward, Turk went to check on the prisoners and found the two with slashed throats. Other security personnel arrived to find him holding a bloody knife over their bodies—only briefly did they think him responsible, though none of them knew who was. The bodies were removed to a temporary morgue to make room for more prisoners.

Dashwood and his crew were dusted off, and assembling to storm the penthouse; the Rejects all joined them. Together, they went upstairs, and stacked up on the Tenpenny’s door, as Lance picked the lock. They kicked in the door to find one of Tenpenny’s personal guard on his knees, hands up in surrender; in the corner was Tenpenny, shot dead by the guard, who apparently realized which side would prevail and did what he could to save himself. Dashwood looked around and said, “Well, I guess I’m in charge now…”

In an instant, Bob produced a knife and slashed Dashwood’s throat, severing the carotid artery. The others in the room stared dumbfounded as the former security chief bled out on Tenpenny’s carpet; Bob showed no emotion at all, simply saying that he didn’t think he should be in charge. As the room began to recover their wits, Gustavo matter-of-factly declared that Dashwood and Tenpenny had killed each other, and everyone agreed it was so, and looked to Sly to give the sad news to the citizenry.

With the residents of Tenpenny Tower already gathered in the courtyard outside, Sly emerged, followed by what remained of the former administration of the Tower, and delivered the very sad news of the death of their dear leader, and gave a rousing speech about how they must go on, stick together, and get through the difficult times ahead. It was very moving.

At no time did Sly declare himself to be in charge. But they all seemed to look to him for leadership anyway…

The Rejects (AKA The Dirty Half-Dozen, The Six Wanderers)

Bob Perce (Herodian)
Colt Riffle (Gigermann)
Dr. J. Turk (CommJunkee)
Lance Bennett (Ronnke)
Lenny Leonardo (Melissa)
Romeo Sylvester (Rigil Kent)

The One Where Lance Uncovered the Conspiracy

30 Jul 2162

A week passed with the Rejects each performing their assigned (or assumed) duties as would seem normal.

Lance finished a handful of audio bugs, and also a bug detector, to sweep their own living spaces for listening devices already planted by “interested parties” in the Tower. He went to place a couple of bugs in the elevator cars, but when he swept them first with his detector, found bugs already there—which meant that potentially-sensitive conversations they had while in the elevators had likely been overheard. Lance placed his own bugs anyway, and hid them well, but recovered one of the pre-existing devices to show the security chief, to gauge his reactions and determine what his part in this conspiracy might be. He fetched Sly to go along to talk to Dashwood; on the way to his office, Lance set his Pip-Boy to receive transmissions on the recovered bug’s frequency, and made sure it was still active. The two of them showed the device to Dashwood, saying Lance had been fixing a faulty LED in the elevator panel. Dashwood reacted with false-surprise, and told them to inform him of any more that were found. As the two left Dashwood’s office, the security chief could be overheard, via the still-active device, telling another in the office that these new guys “might be a problem”; this was recorded for later.

Afterward, Lance went to each of the Rejects’ rooms and swept for bugs, finding none, though he wasn’t entirely convinced he had done it right.

Later, Lance got a work-order for a light fixture in Tenpenny’s office while the boss was out, so he decided to seize the opportunity to sweep/place bugs there as well. Again, he found multiple listening devices already present in the office, and made note of their frequencies to hijack later.

That evening, Lance swept the rooms for bugs again, this time, locating a few; he let the others know. They decided to set up a hidden camera to watch the room in view of one of them, and tamper with the bug, such that it would need to be replaced by its owner. Around the middle of the next day, while everyone was off working, someone did get into the room and change out the bug with a fresh one. The Rejects later identified the guy in the video as one of the security guys.

Now expecting trouble, Lance started a new under-the-table project to reprogram the Mr. Handy maintenance bots with a sleeper kill-mode, keyed to himself, just in case.

That evening, the Rejects went to the Federalist Lounge to confront Dashwood, expecting that they were not actually his target, but Tenpenny was. Sly sidled up next to him at the bar, while the others tried to look inconspicuous nearby, as backup. Dashwood would admit to nothing until he was presented with the evidence—his conversation after Lance and Sly left his office, the video of the bug swap-out—at which point he reluctantly took the conversation to a more-secluded corner, where he spilled the beans: he had long been at odds with Tenpenny’s genocidal plans, but with the boss’ growing paranoia of late, Dashwood feared a confrontation was imminent. With his now-trademark “Let me help you” speech, Sly pledged the Rejects to Dashwood’s side, and he accepted, and they discussed how they might force Tenpenny into action, and how they all might survive the result.

The Rejects (AKA The Dirty Half-Dozen, The Six Wanderers)

Bob Perce (Herodian)
Colt Riffle (Gigermann)
Lance Bennett (Ronnke)
Lenny Leonardo (Melissa)
Romeo Sylvester (Rigil Kent)

The One Where They Moved Into the Tower

21 Jul 2162

The Rejects watched over Warrington Station for the expected two days, on regular watch shifts that included the two security guys from the Tower. They learned as much as they could about the security situation, and that Gustavo wasn’t quite on-board with Tenpenny’s genocide plans; Sly started planting the “Doesn’t Tenpenny look tired?” earwig. When they could get out of earshot of the security guys, Lance confided a plan of his to create some listening-devices to be “discovered” around the Tower, to water the seed of paranoia Sly had planted. On the evening of Day 2, under cover of darkness, the ghoul community moved out en masse as expected. Later, they all went down to the station to confirm that none were left behind. Satisfied, they all returned to Tenpenny Tower to declare the mission a success.

The Rejects were given room keys; bunked two to a room. After settling in with their gear, they ended up in the local bar. Sly chatted up the receptionist, and ended up spending the night at her place. Lance hit the buffet, and discovered a bit late that it wasn’t “free.”

In the morning, they were all summoned to the penthouse to meet with Tenpenny. He was annoyed that the ghouls hadn’t been killed, but conceded the mission had been accomplished anyway, and welcomed them into his service. Lance was cleared to work with the Mr. Handy robots, the only “maintenance department” in the Tower. Bob would take a custodial job. Turk was finally allowed to talk to the doctor. Colt and Lenny would be assigned to the security team. Tenpenny spoke to Sly privately, and confided that he had his own suspicions who the Megaton mole might be, and sought Sly’s assurance that his people would be prepared to “take care of it” when the time came; Sly pledged to help in whatever way they could. Colt was to keep tabs on Dashwood, the head of security, and report back to Sly openly, who would report directly back to Tenpenny under-the-table.

• Colt and Lenny went to join security the next day, and met with Dashwood; they learned of his relationship with Tenpenny, going back to their days in the Vault—Dashwood wanted to be in charge, even back then, though the two were still friendly to each other—and the two were assigned to gate-guard that evening
• Colt made a show of reporting back to Sly, making sure Sly looked to be “in charge”
• Lance and Bob headed down to the robot bay, and looked over the service-order backlog; Lance started hatching a plan to reprogram the robots for his purposes, while Bob explored a bit, and found a very-old dumbwaiter shaft he could potentially use to hide his illicit activities
• Turk hung out with the doctor, learning about the local medical issues
• Sly hung out with Rachel at the reception desk, with a dual-purpose mission to further their relationship, but also to listen to tenant problems, which are reported to her—he would slip in and offer solutions, getting Lance working on those old, nagging maintenance issues, and solving administrative or personal issues himself—and in so doing, by force of his personality and ideal placement, began subtly taking over as building manager, the tenants’ go-to guy for all manner of problem-solving

Notes

• Turk’s player was absent for this session

The Rejects (AKA The Dirty Half-Dozen, The Six Wanderers)

Bob Perce (Herodian)
Colt Riffle (Gigermann)
Lance Bennett (Ronnke)
Lenny Leonardo (Melissa)
Romeo Sylvester (Rigil Kent)

The One Where They Took Care of the Ghouls

20 Jul 2162

On the road back to Megaton, the Rejects had discussed a number of ideas about how to resolve the Tenpenny threat to Megaton. Outright assassination—meaning Colt shoots Alistair Tenpenny off his balcony from 1000 yards away—was the easiest solution, but would leave a power-vacuum that would have to be managed; too many unknown variables, without being able to spend time to get to know the players inside the Tower. The better solution, which they ultimately agreed upon, was to infiltrate the Tower and turn the citizens against Tenpenny, and then banish him (after which, his death might still occur, as needed). They would attempt to set up Sly to replace Tenpenny, though if another ended up in charge, if no better, he could be similarly managed. Before that could occur, though, they had to gain admittance to the Tower, and that required some distasteful service—blowing up Megaton or killing off the nearby ghoul community. Either would be faked, of course; “eliminating” the ghouls would be easier than faking a nuke, but would require their cooperation.

The night the Rejects arrived back at town, they went to Moira’s shop to see what sort of explosives she had available: turned out to be not a lot; faking a nuke would be pretty much out of the question. So, they decided to make straight for Warrington Station in the morning, and talk to Roy there, hoping to get them to cooperate, for their own sakes.

The trip back out to Warrington was uneventful. It was an abandoned subway station, now occupied by a small survivor-community of ghouls, including women and children. The Rejects approached openly, Sly taking the lead, and asked to see Roy (whom they had met at the Tower gate the day before). Roy came out to talk to them, and Sly held nothing back, admitting that Tenpenny had sent them to kill his people, but had a rather different plan in mind, that would end in the ghouls being admitted to the Tower, under a new administration. Roy invited the Reject inside the tunnels, and they sat down and discussed the possibilities further. Roy knew of a secret way into the Tower where they could sneak in and kill their way up to the top, but the Rejects insisted nobody needed to die. Instead, they suggested Roy and the ghoul community vacate Warrington, in full view of the Tower, so it could be claimed that they had agreed to move on, never to return; when the coup had taken place, a signal would be given for the ghouls to return safely. Roy would rather have killed his way in, but he saw the merits of the Rejects’ plan, and agreed, saying his people would need two days to gather everything up and move out. Hands were shaken.

For show, the Rejects made camp at the top of a hill overlooking the station, to observe the ghouls’ progress at packing-up. Meanwhile, Sly and Lenny went back to the Tower to let Tenpenny know of their “success.” Tenpenny received the news with little enthusiasm that the Rejects had not quite taken his hint—he clearly wanted the ghouls dead—but gone would be good enough. Before leaving, Sly took the opportunity to speak with Tenpenny alone, and suggested to him that Megaton had a spy inside the Tower, who outed Mister Burke to the town, resulting in his death at the Sheriff’s hands. The revelation visibly troubled Tenpenny, who muttered to himself how he might discover the spy, before dismissing Sly to get back to his mission.

He ordered a couple of Tower security officers to go along to keep watch over the station (just to be certain), and sent them on their way; Gustavo, with whom Colt had developed a rapport the day before, and the trigger-happy, drunk-on-the-Kool-Aid “William Jones” went along back to the camp and took up shifts on the watch (though the Rejects took care the two were never the only ones on watch).

Notes

• Turk’s player was absent for this session

The Rejects (AKA The Dirty Half-Dozen, The Six Wanderers)

Bob Perce (Herodian)
Colt Riffle (Gigermann)
Dr. J. Turk (CommJunkee)
Lance Bennett (Ronnke)
Lenny Leonardo (Melissa)

The One Where They Went to Tenpenny Tower

19 Jul 2162

A day and a half after clearing things up with the schoolhouse “raiders,” the Rejects set out to deal with the “Tenpenny” situation, brought to light by their encounter with the now-deceased Mister Burke a week ago. They had been told that Tenpenny was a former vault overseer that had taken up residence, along with his former-vault-dweller community, in a pre-War hotel high-rise now referred to as Tenpenny Tower; an exclusive and secretive community, not allowing outsiders to join them. The Tower was about five miles to the west, a half-day’s walk—the top of the Tower could be see just over the horizon. The Rejects took along their brahmin, Betty, loaded with their supplies, intending to appear as wasteland traders.

The trip to the tower was briefly interrupted by an encounter with a few feral ghouls, which were gunned down in short order, with little fanfare.

They arrived at the gated entry to the Tower to find a disgruntled ghoul (non-feral) demanding, and being denied entry. Speaking to the ghoul, Roy, afterward, they learned that Tenpenny was screening potential residents and refusing those with “genetic defects” or other contaminants, especially ghouls, but including folks who have lived in the wasteland for any length of time—which means pretty much anyone else. After Roy left, they approached the gate and asked to be admitted; a scanner screened them each for genetic impurity and pronounced them “clean,” and they were allowed inside the gate. Betty was left in the courtyard; Sly elected to remain with the brahmin, as he was feeling unwell (and wearing the now-deceased Mister Burke’s very-fine hat, which might raise some eyebrows if recognized).

They approached the receptionist’s desk and asked for a meeting with Tenpenny, which was eventually granted. They were escorted to Tenpenny’s office at the penthouse; he was out on the balcony with a large sniper rifle, taking the occasional pot-shot at local wildlife below. They learned from him about his genocidal plans for those he deemed impure (everyone not from a Vault); he offered to let them stay in the Tower for 1000 caps per month (an intentionally impossible amount), or for free if they would do a favor or two for him: “take care of” the ghouls living in the Warrington subway system, and/or finish the original job at Megaton, by detonating the bomb. The Rejects said they would consider the offer and return, and were then escorted back down to the lobby where they were allowed to look around.

• Colt made some small talk with one of the security guys, Gustavo, to get a feel for the employees’ situation at the Tower—turned out the security guys live separate from the other residents, in the Tower basement level
• Turk tried to talk to the Tower’s doctor but was denied—“Residents only”
• Turk and Bob talked to some residents at the chow-hall about life in the Tower—some had totally drunk the “master race” Kool-Aid, but some had not

Afterward, the Rejects took their leave of the Tower and returned to Megaton, planning their next moves along the way.

Notes

• Sly’s player was absent for this session

The Rejects (AKA The Dirty Half-Dozen, The Six Wanderers)

Bob Perce (Herodian)
Colt Riffle (Gigermann)
Lance Bennett (Ronnke)
Lenny Leonardo (Melissa)
Romeo Sylvester (Rigil Kent)

The One Where They Went to Raider School

12 Jul 2162

Still at Moira’s store, Lance continued to tinker with her practice mine, with Colt’s input, before Sly eventually convinced Moira to let Lance keep it, as a promise to deal with the minefield later. Lance was getting more confident that he might actually be able to disarm the mines without killing everyone near him—not that the others were so convinced.

Now well into the evening, the Rejects left the store to find Sheriff Simms, to get the details on his earlier report of raiders operating out of a nearby abandoned schoolhouse. He pointed out the location—less than a mile to the north, actually within sight of Megaton—and explained that the raiders keep out of sight most of the time, but have occasionally broken into the town and stolen supplies. They weren’t enough of a bother to expend limited town resources to remove them, but a nuisance nonetheless. The Rejects agreed to look into it.

Colt went to the roof of the highest “building” in town, the water processing plant, and using his night-vision gear, scoped out the school a bit, throughout the night; he observed a couple of guys here and there, on watch outside the school. Some time after sunrise, he went around town and, with the others’ help, scrounged up the necessary materials to put together a proper ghillie suit, intending to use it to creep in close to the school and reconnoiter. He slept through the rest of the day and most of the night, rising a few hours before sunrise. Under cover of the early-morning darkness, wearing his new ghillie suit, he silently crept to within a few-hundred yards of the school, as the others observed from the town wall through Sly’s night-vision optics. Colt stayed in his hidden position for most of the day, observing and reporting back to the others via Pip-Boy, before returning after dusk; he counted five individuals overall, lightly armed, emerging from the school building throughout the day.

In the meantime, Lance hit upon an idea to build a remotely-controlled “scout robot” out of available scrap, and started working on it. It took a few days to put it together, but he ended up with a functional device, essentially a smallish, three-wheeled mobile camera, capable of approaching the school and maybe getting a direct look inside, relaying back video to his Pip-Boy. That evening after sunset, Lance launched his new spybot and guided it in close to the school, using the terrain to mask its approach, while Colt crept out once again to his former post. Upon closer inspection, they agreed that the “raiders” outside seemed a bit…inauthentic, somehow.

Lance positioned the spybot in the shadows just outside the front doors, waiting for an opportunity to slip through and get a look inside. The opportunity finally came, though the spybot was spotted in the process of slipping through the doors, so Lance gunned it through to the interior, hoping to get a quick look before the robot was captured. To everyone’s surprise, the room beyond was populated by a number of small children, supervised by a single woman; as the children excitedly chased the robot ’round the room, darting under tables and around school-desks, Lance also spotted a well-used trapdoor toward the back of the room. In a last-ditch effort to save the robot for future use, Lance ramped the spybot off some junk and out of an open window, but it had exceeded its effective control range, and continued on in a straight line out into the wasteland, out of control, never to be seen again.

16 Jul 2162

The next day, convinced that things at the school were not as they appeared, the Rejects walked out openly to the school under a white flag, and Sly requested a parley, which was reluctantly granted. It turned out that the “raider” thing was an act to keep others away, that they didn’t trust the townies at Megaton, and that they had been gathering up orphans wandering the wasteland and sheltering them here. Eventually, the Sheriff was fetched to the parley, and he, Sly, and the woman leading the school “raiders” hammered out a deal; Megaton would effectively incorporate the school, offering protection, free trade, and freedom to continue operating as they had, in exchange for a cessation of their occasional raids on the town.

Notes

• Turk’s player was absent for this session